Joseph Malula

Joseph-Albert Malula (12 December 1917 – 14 June 1989) was a Congolese Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Kinshasa from 1964 until his death.

Malula was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Georges Six, CICM, on 9 June 1946, in the Stade Reine Astrid.

He received his episcopal consecration on the following 20 September from Archbishop Félix Scalais, CICM, with Bishops Pierre Kimbondo and Joseph Nkongolo serving as co-consecrators, at the Stade Tata Raphaël.

Pope Paul VI created him Cardinal Priest of Santi Protomartiri a Via Aurelia Antica in the consistory of 28 April 1969.

At a Mass in 1970, at which President Mobutu was present, the Cardinal claimed Zaire's ruling class was enriching itself and ignoring the people's misery[1] In 1971, despite being an advocate of African culture, he expressed his disapproval of Christians giving up their baptismal names in an article in the Catholic weekly magazine, Afrique Chrétienne, following the renaming of the Republic of the Congo as the Republic of Zaire.

"[4] Cardinal Malula died on 14 June 1989 at a hospital in Leuven, Belgium, aged 71, and is interred at the Cathédrale Notre Dame du Congo, Kinshasa.

Joseph Malula leading a ceremony before members of the government at the Notre Dame du Congo , 1961